The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South Book

Yes, it is a little dated, but Genovese produced a lot of influential work on the slave South, so if you are studying this stuff you really should read him. And I found this to be a really fast, interesting read. It doesn't sound like it will be, but he's got a lot of compelling argument here. Basically, Genovese wants to show that the Southern slaveholding economy didn't work at all. It was hopelessly backwards. Plantations were horribly inefficient, and they couldn't invest in labor-saving efficiency innovations, because anything that saved labor meant that the slaves had less work to do. If the slaves had less work, then they would have to be sold. But if all the plantations became more efficient, then there would be a permanent surplus of slaves, which would mean that slaves would lose value, which would lead eventually to the end of slavery, and the death of the planter class. So the slave holders responded by investing all their money in more slaves and more land, rather than in innovation.
This is a debatable argument, as the supposedly anti-Capitalist inefficient plantations made a TON of money for the plantation owners, but hey, history is all about debate. The book remains important.